WTA 2022 year talking points: Bye-bye Ashleigh Barty, tremendous Iga Swiatek, and the Emma Raducanu roller-coaster

The yr of Iga

2022 belongs to Iga Swiatek, the imperious 21-calendar year-previous Pole who ends the yr as the earth No. 1 just after winning two Grand Slams and 6 additional WTA titles.

“She appears like she’s masking two courts when you cover only a single,” reported WTA Finals winner Caroline Garcia not long ago.

Really do not hold your breath on a Barty comeback

A year is a very long time in tennis, and it is virtually really hard to consider that 2022 commenced with Barty winning her initially Australian Open title, and 3rd Grand Slam general.

An accomplished golfer and cricketer as well, the assumption was that Barty would glance at using up one more activity skillfully – possessing won a local golfing tournament quickly just after retiring from tennis – but instead she has worked on a “Little Ash” guide collection for youngsters, and is not considering about a comeback to the activity she dominated as not too long ago as January.

“Nope, I’m done,” she stated at the start of her autobiography ‘My Dream Time’ this week.

“You can never say never but no. No, no, no. I’m performed. I miss out on competing and tough myself against the most effective of the planet but I never overlook a lot that will come with it.”

Garcia’s remarkable return

You would have had fantastic odds at the begin of the yr if predicting that planet No. 74 Garcia would get the time-ending WTA Finals, and possibly even much better odds in June – as she was still the world No. 75 then.

Garcia will therefore head to the Australian Open up as a single of the favourites, and just after her occupation-finest Grand Slam show at the US Open up, where by she arrived at the semi-finals, the French 29-calendar year-previous will be determined to transform this purple-scorching sort into Grand Slam glory.

Jabeur the Grand Slam just about lady

It is maybe fitting that Ons Jabeur finishes the year as the entire world No. 2, getting agonisingly completed runner-up at the two Wimbledon and the US Open up.

The preferred Tunisian hardly ever hesitated to present off her exclusive model of tennis, and despite the Grand Slam around-misses it helped her win titles in both Madrid and Berlin this yr.

“I think the emphasize of my time is just being consistent,” Jabeur told WTA Insider. “I failed to just have 1 or two tournaments, I was consistent.

“I was pushing myself to do improved, particularly with my final results on clay. It’s astounding, just difficult myself there and staying able to do that was truly, definitely massive for me.”

She will be a challenger once more in 2023. Make no slip-up of that.

Again to fact for Raducanu

Just after her shock 2021 US Open triumph, Emma Raducanu’s 1st total period on tour was a harsh, drawn out lesson that confirmed her just how relentless the plan can be, and just how packed with Grand Slam champions the women’s game is.

Raducanu’s 2022 report reads 17-19 for wins and losses, with a fall down to No. 75 in the planet, six months soon after she attained a vocation-high No. 10.